Cyclone girls fare well in season opening meet at the IATC Indoor Championships in Ames
AMES — The Harlan Community girls track and field team officially opened its season Thursday at the IATC Indoor State Championships in Ames, taking a limited squad to compete in the early-season meet.
Qualification for the event was based on athletes’ best marks from the previous season.
The first event for the Cyclones was the 4x800-meter relay. The team of Ava Freund, Sadie Alberti, Aspen Bieker and Josie Sonderman finished with a time of 10:45.71.
The mark was faster than the Cyclones’ time at the meet a year ago and placed them 11th in Class 3A out of 16 teams.
Hawkeye 10 Conference foes Glenwood and Creston also competed in the event and finished second and sixth, respectively.
The next event featuring a Cyclone was the 400-meter dash, where Aubree Wegner placed 22nd out of 24 runners with a time of 1:05.66.
HCHS had two runners compete in the 1,500-meters as Ashlyn Rau and Julia Heslink both earned top-10 finishes.
Rau placed seventh with a time of 4:57.61, finishing just one spot shy of a medal.
Heslink finished ninth with a time of 5:02.52, which also moved her to eighth on the Harlan Community all-time list in the event.
In doing so, Heslink knocked her current coach, Jenny Hamilton, off the top-10 list.
It was Heslink’s first varsity track event and a strong start to what looks to be a promising future for the Cyclones.
Sadie Alberti later competed in the 800-meter run, finishing 28th out of 29 runners with a time of 2:39.15.
Rau returned to the track later in the day to compete in the 3,000-meter run, placing 13th out of 17 runners with a time of 11:41.20.
The final running event for the HCHS girls was the 4x400-meter relay, where Wegner, Heslink, Brinley Van Baale and Sonderman placed 18th out of 24 teams with a time of 4:26.35.
The time was also faster than the Cyclones’ mark at the meet last season.
Wegner also competed in the 60-meter dash prelims, finishing 39th with a time of 8.88.
In field events, Adelyn Berndt was the lone competitor for the Cyclones in the shot put.
She placed 26th out of 30 competitors with a throw of 28 feet, 3.5 inches.
Head coach Jenny Hamilton shared her thoughts on the team’s performance. “In the field, we were excited to have Addie throw in the 28s. It’s a good place to start, and we know she’ll climb from here,” Hamilton said of Berndt’s performance.
Hamilton also spoke about the team’s performance on the track.“On the track, both our 4x8 and 4x4 relays finished with times ahead of where we were last year at this meet. Ashlyn and Julia both ran well in the 1500 with Ashlyn finishing one spot away from medaling and Julia earning the No. 8 spot on the HCHS all-time top 10 list,” Hamilton said.
“Sadie had a tough assignment running two 800s. She answered the call and ran the second 800 two seconds faster than her first. Aspen stepped up and filled an opening in our 4x4. She is always so willing to do what is asked, and we always know we’ll get her best effort.”
Hamilton said she feels good about the early marks and is looking forward to building off them as the season progresses.
The Cyclones will be back in action at the Central College Girls Indoor meet, which begins at 10 a.m.
